MS's big middle finger to the 360 Halo fans

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'Halo: Spartan Assault' Coming To Windows 8 And Windows Phone 8 Devices

Microsoft’s next Halo game is coming exclusively to Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8.



In what appears to be a bid to bulwark Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 against the odds, Microsoft has announced the latest in the popular Halo franchise is coming to Windows touch-screen devices.


Erik Kain
Contributor

Halo: Spartan Assault takes place between the events of Halo 3 and Halo 4. Developed by Vanguard Games and 343 Industries, the new game launches this July for $6.99. It will include optional in-app purchases.

From the game’s description, it appears there will be some integration between Halo 4′s Spartan Ops and the mobile game:

With 25 unique missions featuring unrivaled action and intensity, the single-player experience allows you to compete against friends in Leaderboards or hone your skills with Weekly Challenges. Replay the missions to collect more than 40 in-game Achievements and Medals.

For fans who already have a prospering Spartan career aboard the UNSC Infinity, “Halo: Spartan Assault” lets you earn experience points (XP), all-new Achievements, and emblems for your “Halo 4” Spartan, with additional integration features available after launch.

It looks like a decent enough mobile game, and certainly a much-needed release on the Windows Phone platform. The screenshots (which you can see in the below gallery) look very pretty, though not ground-breaking.

To be honest, I think Microsoft should release Halo 4 as a Windows 8 game as well—the game was one of my favorite shooters of 2012, and my personal favorite entry in the franchise since the original.

Hopefully the Xbox manufacturer funnels some of the cash they’re devoting to the Xbox One into both PC and Windows Phone game development, especially if they’re hoping for some unity across the three platforms. I’m not a huge fan of most mobile titles, but there’s no denying their importance to the Windows Phone’s long-term viability.

Games aren’t the be-all, end-all of a mobile platform, but I do believe the success of Apple’s iPhone can largely be attributed to the much better apps (and especially game apps) that have been available on that device. The Windows Phone, and Nokia’s offerings in particular, looks like a perfectly good platform with excellent devices, but without similarly excellent apps and games, it will simply flounder.

I’m not sure whether Halo: Spartan Assault will move any units for Microsoft, but it’s a good start.

For more information visit Halo Waypoint.

*Watching MS screwing Mac owners off their supposed one time killer FPS game to build their Xbox fan base with "Halo: Combat Evolved": $50

*Watching MS screwing Windows XP owners by making Halo 2 having a mandatory install of Windows Vista: $99

*Watching MS screwing PC owners again by simply not porting Halo 3 or 4 to PC: $260

Watching MS screwing Xbox Halo fans by making the new Halo game Windows 8 only: Priceless